The Great German Road Trip, Days 1 and 2: August 3 & 4, 2020

This year is full of strangeness, one of those strange things being a lack of a vacation in the United States. I have gone back to my lovely home state of Michigan every year for most of the 17 years I've lived in Germany, but this year I decided not to because the situation was just too unsure considering the Corona pandemic: things seem to be changing every day and I was concerned about getting stranded, quarantined, infected, or spreading infection. So this summer I am not crossing any international borders, but rather travelling the lovely country of Germany. One could even say I'm travelling from sea to shining sea: I am travelling from Senftenberg Lake only about an hour away from home to Sylvensteinsee in Bavaria, then on to the North Sea in East Frisia and later on to the Baltic Sea in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. So, after four years of no posts, I'm back!

After a busy few months of staying home, homeschooling the boys, and working online, I was thrilled to venture off on my second big trip of the year (back in February, not aware that it would be my last international trip for a while, I splurged on a trip to Spain--more on that later!). This trip was to take me to see dear friends in Bavaria, about an hour south of Munich. The drive from Mittweida to Lenggries took me 5 hours and the last hour or so was in the rain. Monday and Tuesday were rainy, which left us with verdant landscapes and clean, crisp mountain air the rest of the week. It was perfect!

I arrived at our accommodation, Haus Marter in Winkl, just in time for a delicious dinner prepared by my friends. Then we started planning for the next days. Our tours would take us through the foothills of Lenggries, around the peaks of Brauneck and Latschenkopf, through the Schwarzenbach valley, and from the Isar around Roßkopf Mountain and back past Sylvensteinsee. It was a perfect week! 

Around 2 or 3 pm the rain let up enough that we could go out for a rainy walk. We ended up walking through the farmland behind our accommodation for about three hours and uphill just a bit through the forest, picking our way past puddles and rushing streams. 

This is normally a quiet stream, but after several days of rain was quite full of water.

A view over the rolling hills, across the valley and to the mountains on the other side.

Here's the Klaffenbach, which turned into a rushing waterfall after the rain.

This is downstream on the Klaffenbach, normally some lovely rock formations are exposed, but there was so much water that just the biggest round rock was peeking out!

It was so refreshing to see something different. We didn't mind the rain! My toes got a bit wet in the puddles on the first alpine tour with my new shoes. They are good for short walks, but I decided to go with my boots for the next day's trip up Brauneck.